Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.
Issue link: http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com/i/106074
Photos by Mike Ernst Nashville Notes From the left: Nashville holiday partygoers Jayna Cullens '11, Otto Gross '10, and Lucas Carpenter '06 Chris Parris '05 Aurelien Budynek '06 Yuko Yamamura of Queens, NY, won the grand prize in the Jazz category of the 2012 John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her song "Rove Over." She also released the album Ajarria, which won an award at the Japan Arts Matsuri (JAM) festival. Press, Absolute Punk, and Guitar World magazines. He also plays with Dark Empire and Johnny Drama. Visit www. boymeetsmachine.com. 2007 Alexis Grapsas of Los Angeles, CA, produced the album Diary of Dreams by Stavros Lantsias '90. It features the La Camerata Athens String Orchestra, Peter Erskine on drums, and Lars Danielsson on bass. Eli Harrison of Novato, CA, released the album lovefreedommelody. Visit www.elimakesmusic.com. Myoung Nam of Kyonggido, South Korea, is finishing his Ph.D. program at Seoul National University. Motoki Tanaka of Brighton, MA, is the conductor and artistic director of the Boston String Players. In October, the group produced a multimedia event titled "From Bach to Bjork" at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston Visit www.bostonstringplayers.org. 2008 Christian Colabelli of Tinton Falls, NJ, and his band Boy Meets Machine, were on WRAT radio, and their album War Horn was featured in Alternative Singer Amy Heidemann of Burbank, CA, appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine's online edition as the winner of its Women Who Rock contest. She and Nick Noonan form the duo Karmin. Enrique Lara of Los Angeles, CA, has played drums for American Idol's Casey Abrams. He also works with his brother Miguel Lara '07 and Wes Switzer '07. Visit www.enriquexlara. com. Hiromi Suda of Woodside, NY, released the album Sou. Visit www. hiromisuda.com. Keiko Ueda (aka Keiko Shiga) of Kumamoto, Japan, worked on music for the film Our Night Is Not Long. It was nominated at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Visit www.keikoshiga.com. 2009 Alexandra Hampton (aka Aandra) of Farmingdale, NJ, has written cues for Bravo's Real Housewives of New Jersey, ABC's 20/20, and other shows. In 2012 she released the album Origin, and will release another this year. Visit www.aandra-music.com. Jenn Bostic '08 and Alex Wright '11 For so many local alumni in Music City, the year 2012 was successful, inspiring, exciting, scary, and entertaining. As we look forward to all the promise of 2013, let's recap what some alumni have been up to. With the new year, drummer Joe Smyth '75 is entering year 31 with his band Sawyer Brown. He occupies, arguably, the longest-held drum chair in Nashville and country music. Joe's Matrix Percussion Trio also just completed presentations of its "We Are the World: Percussion Around the Globe" program to some 11,000 public-school students in Nashville and surrounding counties. Sarah Tollerson '08 announced the release of her new record Wherever We Go with a killer show at 12th & Porter Nashville on November 17. Caleb James '07, whose company Old Soul Management LLC has managed Matthew Perryman Jones, the Grascals, and Waterdeep, has just landed the position of tour manager for the new hip-hop/country band Jesta James. Songwriter and piano genius, Rachel Solomon '06 just completed her debut solo project, Love Ourselves, which is available on her new website www.rachelsolo.com. Players on the seven-song mini-album include George Marinelli, (Bruce Hornsby, Bonnie Raitt), as well as violinist Sarah Wilfong '03. Gabriel Heiser '71 has started a band called Zen Poets with vocalist Margaret Cunningham, featuring his original material. Visit www.zenpoets. com. Singer/songwriter Jenn Bostic '08 toured the United Kingdom in November, opening for Christian Kane. While overseas, she performed on BBC Breakfast, which led to her single "Jealous of the Angels" reaching number one on the iTunes singer/songwriter chart UK. Upon returning, Bostic made her Ryman Auditorium debut, performing the song on December 29 for the Opry at the Ryman concert. Kira (McConaghy) Small '93 spent the 2012 holiday season as a background vocalist on Martina McBride's Joy of Christmas Tour. Katie Miner Eckardt '99 released the Christmas album O Come, All Ye Faithful and is donating half the CD's proceeds to facilitate the adoption of a young Russian girl. Visit www. katieminereckardt.bandcamp.com. Drummer Jeffrey Lien '03 was featured in the November 2012 issue of Down Beat magazine. Lien, a recent transplant to Nashville from Chicago, is performing for the winter production of Glad Tidings at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre in Bellevue, TN. Songwriter Greg Becker '95 recently scored cuts with Tim McGraw and Mackenzie Porter. The single "I Wish I'd Known" by Porter started its ascent up the Billboard charts during the first week of December. The Balsam Range Band reached number one on the Singing News Bluegrass Gospel chart with the song "Row by Row" penned by Ashleigh Caudill '07. Finally, December 10 marked the annual Berklee Alumni Holiday Party, hosted by Justine Taormino '06 and Arielle Schwalm '10 of Berklee's Office of Alumni Affairs, and yours truly. The event was once again held at Flyte, a local wine bar and restaurant and drew more than 100 festive alumni. As we look forward, here's to a lucky '13. —David Petrelli '05 Spring2013 Fall2012 37